The lawsuit, filed in September, alleged that maintenance men demanded sex from women living in public housing before they would make repairs to their
“deplorable conditions,” which included rodent and insect infestations, lack of heat, mold, and electrocution risks.
It also claims that at least one employee
threatened a woman with violence if she didn’t give into his demands for sex, while another offered a woman cash for sex.
The men also allegedly tried to intimidate women out of requesting repairs by sexually harassing them.
“These victims are too poor to move out and relocate their families,” the complaint says. “Consequently, they are left with the impossible choice of either succumbing to unwanted sexual demands in order to save themselves and their children from life-threatening conditions in their homes, or, living in squalor.”
The complaint claims
women of nearly all ages — under-aged to in their 50s — and both the disabled and able-bodied were targeted by the harassment and abuse. “These affronts are about power and control over the most vulnerable members of society, including the poor, the young, and the disabled,” the complaint states.
The stories are harrowing. In
a sworn statement, a single mother who moved into public housing to flee an abusive relationship described a housing employee she called
Mr. Coleman exposing himself to her in his office and telling her she could get extra repairs on her house if she figured out “what can you do with this?”
When
there was a gas leak in her house, she said she feared for her life and finally gave in, having sex with Coleman in order to get him to fix the leak. “I thought about my safety and the safety of my daughter to get through it,” she states. She kept needing repairs —
such as a fix to a door that wouldn’t latch, leaving her and her daughter exposed to break-ins, and heat that didn’t work — and had intercourse with him four times and oral sex once. “After each time I gave in, Mr. Coleman had long-overdue work done to my unit,” she says.
The mother of a four-year-old says her daughter developed health problems related to peeling paint. Coleman sent her a video of himself in the shower naked and then demanded she send him pictures of her in her underwear. Worried for her daughter’s health, she sent him the pictures, after which he did some repairs.
Another mother of two said a different worker named Mike told her he would pay her for a date and that he “pays the girls in Gilmor [housing] well,” grabbing her breast. After she complained to his boss, the entire crew refused to repair her home.
Now, a leaking pipe has caused such a bad mold outbreak that she sometimes coughs up blood.
with that shyt.
